Moyes Emerges from the Gloom, and his Ego is Back

Following on from West Hams’ upturn in form, David Moyes proclaimed that he could “manage any club in the world”. A bold statement, indeed, and I guess technically true; I mean, so could I, I just wouldn’t be very good at it.

After a 9-month tenure at Manchester United — which believe me, felt like an eternity — he took the Champions to a lowly 6th place in the league, and upon his sacking, believed he needed more time. Uprooting Sir Alex Ferguson’s backroom staff and alienating top professionals like Vidic and Ferdinand by asking them to watch videos of Phil Jagielka, certainly didn’t help his cause.

It was as if he asked Lewis Hamilton to take driving lessons from Mr Bean.

The Moyes debacle didn’t come without its highlights; he loves to break records does David, and the list of achievements whilst at Old Trafford is a real horror story. Lowest ever points tally in Premier League history; City, Liverpool and Everton doing the double over United for the first time ever; the most crosses ever in a single premier league match; the highest ever number of defeats, 11; and the highest ever number of home defeats with 6. He certainly left his mark.

Moyes continued his reign of terror at Real Sociedad, where the team had to scrap it out with the rest of the league’s basement boys. Upon Moyes’ sacking, Real Sociedad recovered to press for European qualification the following season. Then came the Sunderland job, which Moyes had the front to confess he probably shouldn’t have taken as he didn’t do “due diligence.”

He certainly has some front.

Sunderland were relegated from the moment he took over, lowering expectations, stating that the club were in a relegation battle the moment he took over.

Moyes has that effect on a club: a dark cloud lingering over it, sucking the life and expectations from the fanbase. Who can forget the wry smirks which came over his face in the post-match interviews whilst at Old Trafford? As if to say, “I don’t have a clue what I’m doing here, but I’m getting away with it.”

Fast forward three seasons and United are still rebuilding the mess created by Moyes. I honestly believe he set the club back 5 years. Admittedly, he was left with an ageing squad by Sir Alex, with a midfield which had been woefully neglected for years. If he’d held his hands up and admitted the job was too big for him, myself and many United supporters would have accepted it. Moyes, however, just made excuses, and I’m sure Sunderland fans would say the same.

Football is a unique industry, in that it is one of the very few in which you can be a failure at your job and still receive a financial reward for your time. The managerial merry-go-round, as they call it. Wouldn’t it be great if we could all jump on board?